Dunphy: The micromanagement of microaggressions

Microaggressions is still such a new word that my spellcheck always underlines it in red. Yet, they seem to be everywhere. A search reveals a plethora of articles and web sites devoted to the subject. According to www.microaggressions.com, “microaggressions are the subtle ways in which body and verbal language convey oppressive ideology about power or privilege against marginalized identities.” Readers are then advised to “take a look at our About page and the Wikipedia article for more about the term.”

This web site contains thousands of examples of microaggressions that have been submitted by those who believe they’ve been victimized. “Is she yours?” a white woman walking with her black daughter was asked by strangers. Such a question was indeed rude and offensive. Some of the other reported microaggressions, however, are a bit sketchy. A high school student was offended by a classmate’s t-shirt, which read: “Cool story, babe. Now make me a sandwich.” A man was told “You have a very unique look” by someone he identified as “a modeling/acting agent who later signed me on, but has not sent me work in three years.” The aspiring model added, “I am a bit heavyset, have long hair (unusual in this area on males).” The modeling/acting agent’s comment “felt like a back-handed compliment then, and the track record since then kinda shows that it probably was.“

Another microaggression victim posted about being offended when a financial institution asks for the maiden name of his or her mother “Because it’s assumed that I have at least one and no more than one mother in my life AND that she married AND that she gave up her own name AND that that part of her identity was erased enough from my public history so as to be a password to access my private information.” I swear I’m not making this up.

In his article“Microaggressions Matter” for The Atlantic, Simba Runyowa gave an example of a microaggression he experienced as a student at Oberlin that anyone who cares about the feelings of others should take seriously. “As an immigrant,” Runyowa wrote, “my peers relentlessly inquired, “How come your English is so good?”—as if eloquence were beyond the intellectual reach of people who look like me.” He also recalled an African American friend who was inadvertently insulted by an academic advisor. When his friend, who possessed an excellent academic record, asked the advisor for information about majoring in biology, she was told to “look up less-challenging courses in African American Studies instead.” Such a person shouldn’t be employed as an academic advisor.

Runyowa conceded that he, too, has “sometimes made what turned out to be deeply offensive remarks unintentionally,” and concluded that the persons who inquired about his proficiency in English never meant to hurt him. “In fact, they’re probably well-meaning and good-hearted people.” I applaud Runyowa’s magnanimity. This liberal realizes that all of us occasionally make awkward, poorly-worded statements that unintentionally offend others.

“The scholars promoting this concept claim that it is a microaggression even when someone says ‘I don’t see you as black,’ or claims to be colorblind, or purports not to be a sexist, or in general doesn’t ‘acknowledge’ one’s race membership or gender,” John McWhorter wrote in his Time magazine article “ ‘Microaggression’ Is the New Racism on Campus.” I have an issue with such fanaticism. During a commencement address delivered at Rutgers, Bill “the Science Guy” Nye stated that racial discord is all the more tragic because “there really is no such thing as race” and “we are one species — each of us much, much more alike than different.” Did Nye thus commit a microaggression? Personally, I think that anyone who says “Yes!” commits a microaggression against reason and common sense.

John J. Dunphy of Godfrey is the author of “Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois” and owns the Second Reading Book Shop in Alton.

By John J. Dunphy

Contributing columnist

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John J. Dunphy of Godfrey is the author of “Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois” and owns the Second Reading Book Shop in Alton.